Avant Window Navigator (abbreviated AWN or Awn) is a dock-like bar for

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

, which sits on an edge of a user's screen and tracks open windows. Instead of representing open windows as buttons or segments on a bar, it uses large icons on a translucent background to increase readability and add visual appeal. The program was created by Neil J. Patel. Both the appearance and functionality of Avant Window Navigator may be customized, and plugins and applets are available, such as to display the progress of a download in Mozilla Firefox or to control a music player like Rhythmbox. The plugins use the D-Bus IPC system, and applets can be written in C, Python or Vala. A sister project, AWN Extras, is a collection of community-contributed applets and plugins. Releases are usually kept in sync with AWN. One of the major requirements to run older versions of Avant Window Navigator is a

compositing window manager A compositing manager, or compositor, is software that provides applications with an off-screen data buffer, buffer for each window, then Compositing, composites these window buffers into an image representing the screen and writes the result into ...

. At least version 0.4.0-2 in the

Debian Debian () is a free and open-source software, free and open source Linux distribution, developed by the Debian Project, which was established by Ian Murdock in August 1993. Debian is one of the oldest operating systems based on the Linux kerne ...

repos has either Metacity, xcompmgr,

Compiz Compiz () is a compositing window manager for the X Window System, using 3D graphics hardware to create fast compositing desktop effects for window management. Effects, such as a minimization animation or a cube workspace, are implemented as loa ...

, xfwm4,

KWin KWin is a window manager for the X Window System and a Wayland (display server protocol)#Wayland compositors, Wayland compositor. It is released as a part of KDE Plasma, for which it is the default window manager. KWin can also be used on its o ...

or Mutter as a dependency. Therefore, the user was required to install a compositor, which could tax performance on low-end systems. Some alternatives were to use a lightweight

desktop environment In computing, a desktop environment (DE) is an implementation of the desktop metaphor made of a bundle of programs running on top of a computer operating system that share a common graphical user interface (GUI), sometimes described as a graphi ...

such as

Xfce Xfce or XFCE (pronounced as four individual letters, ) is a Free and open-source software, free and open-source desktop environment for Linux and other Unix-like operating systems. Xfce aims to be fast and Lightweight software, lightweight whil ...

, which has a compositing manager since version 4.2.0, or to enable compositing in Metacity when using

GNOME A gnome () is a mythological creature and diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy, introduced by Paracelsus in the 16th century and widely adopted by authors, including those of modern fantasy literature. They are typically depict ...

. However, support for non-composited environments is available in version 0.4.0.Official release blog post
/ref>

References

;Notes * Jack Wallen (12 Aug 2009
Avant Window Navigator: OS X-like dock on Linux desktop
ghacks.net * Dmitri Popov (Jan 30, 2009
Managing Tasks with Avant Window Navigator
Linux Magazine online * Jonathan Roberts (21 July 2007
Gnome Panel Mania
Free Software Magazine column

External links

* - Home of AWN project - Maintained by Povilas Kanapickas (reporting of bugs and issues not permitted, last activity 2014-06-11) * - Project moved to GitHub
AWN Wiki
contains, among other things, installation instructions and a list of FAQs - Site Unknown (as of 2014-12-13)
AWN Forums
- Access to server forbidden (as of 2014-12-13)
Avant Window Navigator (AWN) Mac OS like Dock in openSUSE
at susegeek.com (posting dated 2008-08-02)
Neil J. Patel's Blog
- Blog no longer active (last entry dated 2011-06-12)
Planet AWN
an aggregation of the developers' weblogs - Site Unknown (as of 2014-12-13) {{GTK Application launchers Applications using D-Bus Beta software Free software programmed in C Free software programmed in Python Free software programmed in Vala Graphical shells that use GTK Software that uses PyGTK

See also

References

External links